The present invention relates to a kitchen ladle for soups, stews, gravy, beverages or other liquid, solids mixtures.
The traditional kitchen ladle is a deep-bowled, long handled spoon for serving liquid, solid mixtures such as soup, stews, gravy or fruit punch. The ladle insures that the liquid and solids portion of the soup, stew or other mixture are served together. However, the ladle is incapable of serving the liquid only or the solids only from the liquid solids mixture. Solids can be removed from a liquid, solids mixture by using a perforated spoon or strainer. The strainer is incapable, however, of serving the liquid only from the liquid, solids mixture. For example, it may be necessary to serve broth only from soup for infants or for convalescing adults. In order to obtain the broth, all of the solids must be removed from the mixture or the mixture must be poured through a strainer into another container. With respect to fruit punches, most people would prefer not to have solids in their drink. Pouring the punch from the bowl is awkward and impractical. In certain types of fermented beverages which contain solids, the appearance of the solids in the drink is highly objectionable. In spite of this, the solids must remain in the mixture until the drink is served for obtaining maximum flavor. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated by the present invention.
It is, therefore, a principle object of the invention to provide a combination ladle strainer which enables solids and liquid to be separated from a liquid, solids mixture.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a combination ladle, strainer which is capable of functioning as a ladle or a strainer.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a combination ladle, strainer in which the strainer and ladle portions of the combination are separable and each portion is independently functionable as a ladle and a strainer, respectfully.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a combination ladle, strainer which is simple in construction and easy to use with one hand.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.